The Official Cavan GAA Discussion thread.

You're tough myles

Great win last night. Only two more wins needed to basically hold our position in division 2. Last few years not counting the North/South Split due to COVID 6 points enough to stay up. Looking at the group you would have to confident in taking points of two from Cork, Fermanagh, Louth. The Meath game is anyone's guess as it's a local derby that rarely disappointed.

Quietly confident we can hold onto division two status and play with the big boys for the All Ireland series.

Donegal have beaten Cork well but it’s hard to know on the first day of the League. Donegal 1-20, Cork 2-06.

When you run out like a corner forward often does toward the ball, but you put on the breaks hard and instead run back towards the goal. Back keeps running and ball put in over the top

That was a brilliant team performance, and hugely encouraging for Ray and his management team. I know Rome wasn't built in a day and all that but a convincing win away from home sets things up nicely. Defensively, in terms of set up and tackling, that is easily our best display in some time.

Tactically, massive credit for how we played but also how we lined out. I assumed that the Holla and McVeety would be in the half back line but they lined out as per programme, and both of them caused problems for Kidare with their powerful running. Fantastic performances all over the place. Physically Kildare are a team of monsters but we bullied them all over the park.

It was a real team effort, huge performances from all but Jason, Faulkner, Carolan, McVeety and Holla immense. Kiernan from Denn looked like he had been playing intercounty full back for years, very assured. That was Gerry Smith's best performance in a Cavan jersey for years, possibly shading it for me for MOTM. Special mention to the Gunner. Kildare got two to back scores and the crowd came alive in the second half and he came out and won two kick outs in a row that led to scores that completely killed any momentum they had.

No he won't be with the county panel this year.

"One trivia question put to me at the ground: when was the last time Cavan named a 26 man panel with no Gaels player?"

Gearoid didn't feature last year until Rd5 of the league versus Down so there was no Cavan Gaels representative on any of the 2023 squads until then.

On another note, this was Cavan's first time to win a Rd1 game at Div1 or Div2 level since this league structure came in in 2008 so definitely a notable win.

I did once point out he was injury prone but had the point argued over the one consistent season he had for Cavan without injury.

The resident Celt reporter even picked up on it but, as I said at the time, that was one season and one swallow doesn’t make a Summer.

James played almost every minute of every legue and championship game for Cavan in 2022 which was 14 games as we reached a league final and had 6 championship games with the introduction of the Tailteann. How many county players have played more league and championship games than that in single year? I'd be genuinely curious to know but I'd guess very few if any.

So you were absolutely wrong to say at that point that he was missing as much football as he was available.

I'm not making any claims about how injury prone he is, just disagreeing that he's in the top 2 midfielders in the county at the moment. You decided not to discuss that though and chose to regail us with yet another "I've made the point on here before and i was right" tale.

“Almost every minute of every game” in just 14 games. 8 League and 6 championship.

You reckon that’s enough to give him the title of playing “more minutes for his county than literally any player in the history of the GAA”? That’s quite the title but it could never belong to a Cavan player as we just don’t get to the real business end of the championship enough.

The thing is - without even checking any website or stats - James is beaten that very season without me even checking anywhere. His own team mate Ray Galligan would have played every minute of every game that season. He didn’t get a black card in the second round of the League and we all know Mickey Graham never subbed him.

With some quick checking, in 2016, Mayo played 9 championship games without even making the Connacht final. In 2017, they played 10. In 2018, Tyrone played 10. I haven’t even bothered checked if they made a League final as there’s no need to.

If I was “absolutely wrong”, please post all the stats at that time since he made his debut for Cavan rather than just one select season.

Re your opinion that he’s no longer in the top two mids in the county and arguing it, it’s perfectly valid to be honest. James needs to get back to performing regularly so why would I argue something just for the sake of arguing it - because of who the poster is? That’d be a bit pointless wouldn’t it? I can’t possibly think of anyone who’d go to the point of needless nitpicking like that, can you?

Do you really think it’s only 3 teams that played more than 14 games in a season over the history of the GAA? As I said, I spent the grand total of less than 5 minutes to find those teams in those years. I’d imagine Dublin in their pomp - getting through Leinster each year, the Super 8 years, All Ireland replays - often played more than 14 games in a season. There used to even be Division 1 semi finals and then a final. 14 games would be on the low side of things for the consistently performing top teams. Even way back in 2003, on a quick check, Armagh played 8 championship games, more than Cavan’s six.

Your knowledge on the topic seems very lacking. Perhaps you stop watching football each year after Cavan exit the championship.

So it’s now gone from him playing the most GAA minutes in a season ever for an intercounty player to playing more minutes than 99%!? You’re really doubling down on this but that’s a huge change in your point. You may go back past 99% because 14 games really isn’t very many in a season when compared to the top teams over the years. Any takers for 98%!? 97!?

Again, one swallow doesn’t make a Summer and what exactly is the crux of your argument here? That he’s injury prone and no longer a top midfielder in the county but let’s all revel in the consistent appearances he made two years ago?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_All-Ireland_Senior_Football_Championship - there you go. That’s just 2018 and look at the top scorer charts to see just how many teams played more than six championship games - Monaghan, Dublin, Tyrone, Kildare, Donegal, Galway. Possibly others who didn’t have a top scorer but I’m just really not putting effort into this.

So less than 5 minutes scrolling Wiki amounts to research does it? You keep saying I could only find 4 teams. No I couldn’t. With the minimum of effort, I found 4 teams. There are countless more as the above link shows. Again with one simple search.

I’m not going to waste my time further proving the point you made about James Smith playing more in one season than any player in the history of the GAA being downright lunacy. There was no possible way a Cavan player could have that accolade. We do terribly in the qualifiers most years and have reached one All Ireland semi final (in a shortened season) and one quarter final. The qualifiers have been in existence a quarter of a century now. Smith didn’t even play as much as one of his own team mates that season!

I did indeed agree with you that James is injury prone as per my initial point some time ago on the board - let’s hope he can some time get back to that one consistent season of appearances he had.

No, going on his availability for the county in 2020 and 2021, there were issues before that one consistent year in 2022 where he played a little less football than a lot of players from other counties and Ray Galligan.